Sunday, Bloody (Scorching Hot) Sunday

Was about to entitle this post Sunny Sunday, similar to a post I wrote months ago.  But that Sunday was a pleasantly sunny Sunday.  It was a welcome surprise amidst the cold, rainy spring days. But now it's summer and oh baby.  Daytime high today was 35 degrees.  That's the record high since the first time I've visited Japan.  In the coming nights, the nighttime low is as high as 26 degrees.  Another record high for me.

By the way, "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" is a song by the world famous and legendary (i.e. now they're senior citizens) band, U2.

Anyways, woke up not so early.  I was able to take the 1:20pm bus, and so I arrived at Hon-Atsugi around 1:40pm, 20 minutes before the start of the mass.  Haven't eaten lunch yet so since I've been craving for real fried chicken (not the filleted chicken), I ate fried chicken.  Kentucky style. :-D  Actually I ordered one that comes with a chicken fillet sandwich.  The sizes are too small - 810 yen total.  So expensive!  I was so hungry, so I ordered a nana-pizu setto with koru-suro.  Figure that one out. :-D

Anywho, so off to mass I went.  The usual Filipinos there.  You know, those who see each other only during Sunday mass so they catch up, and they play with the very cute babies during mass.

After mass, I decided to go to the Smile Company, a second-hand (Tagalog: ukay-ukay) shop.  No wait, it's a mall (or department store)!  They have a 5-storey building along a national highway!  It was quite a long walk from Hon-Atsugi station, and this was around 3:30pm.  Scorching hot indeed.  It was interesting to find lots of... well, interesting stuff there.  Like a 980 yen (10 dollars, 500 pesos) guitar!  And iPod touch for only ~25,000 yen (250 dollars, 12500 pesos), nearly 40% off a brand new price.  There are some clothes that are just 100 yen (1 dollar, 50 pesos) each - but mostly women's or children's clothing.  The jeans - they were still in the 5,000 yen (50 dollars, 2,500 pesos)  range.  Yikes.  Clothes in general are way too expensive here.  My friend says you're lucky to find a shirt below 3,000 yen (30 dollars, 1,500 pesos) here.  I wanna buy an I (Heart) Tokyo (in Kanji) shirt!  Actually, I found some being sold online for only 2,685 yen plus shipping, it goes up above 3,000 yen.  Oh boy.  Maybe next time.

I also dropped by the 100-yen store, and saw an unfamiliar Pringles flavor.  Apparently it's a "Spareribs"-flavored Pringles, although it also shows the world-famous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign.  (Well, it's not really that world-famous, but most Americans and Vegas tourists would know what I'm talking about.)  Let's see how it will taste.

Anywho, so today I cooked Nilaga, Ginisa (Giniling), and...  Lechon Kawali, at least the first part of it.  Midway through cooking Nilaga, I realized I didn't have enough black pepper and onions anymore so I made a quick trip to the convenience store.  While before I said it was unconveniently out of the way, now by bicycle it is quite near and more so because I found a really short (and not so slopey) route going there!  There was no crushed black pepper!  Big problem.  There was ground black pepper though.  Good enough.  And the onions I thought were too expensive.  Then I saw sliced onions in a pouch!  Scallions actually, more commonly known as spring onions.  I thought I should try it out.  So I bought it.

Can't wait to eat these foods! :-D

P.S. last night as I went to the convenience store to buy my dinner, I noticed that nearby there was some kind of celebration or something; they had tents set-up with lights, and there were some fireworks (I only heard them; no more fireworks when I got there).  On my way from the grocery, they were also setting up another kind of mini-festival; they have a truck that converts into a stage and there was someone singing (or rehearsing for her performance).  They have lots of celebrations during summer, usually with fireworks.  I heard that every first weekend of August there will be the largest fireworks display in Atsugi at one of its famous tourist spots, the Iiyama Kannon (a 10-minute bike ride from TPU!)  Actually it might be the only real tourist spot here in Atsugi.  They also have hot springs ("onsen") there.